Tonight is the opening night for Menomonie High School’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie”.  I went and watched the dress rehearsal last night and there were a couple of things that stand out about this show.  The first is pretty typical of shows that you see in Menomonie.  The quality of talent in this community is incredible.  It is a direct result of a strong arts community that has provided support and opportunities for a number of these youth to be involved in many shows in which they have honed their craft.

The next thing that stands out is the huge cast.  The cast is so big in this show that it is impossible to get them all into a photograph at any time during the show.  The picture below is the closest that I was able to come to getting most of the cast in one picture.  When they were first cast, there were around 77 students in the cast.  That is almost 1 in 10 of the students in the school.  Add the pit, the crew and others directly involved in the show and you are pushing up toward 90 people performing.  Talk about herding cats!

Hat’s off to Audric  Buhr for running an incredible program, and to everyone who has encouraged all of these students to be involved over the years.

Menomonie has always been known for the large number of students participating in their sports programs, especially football.

But if this keeps on going like this, we might have to start referring to Menomonie as an Arts town.  Those of us who are involved in the arts community have always known it is an arts town, but with the numbers of students who are involved with the spring musical, it may just be time to give the arts equal billing and the credit that is due.

Alright, that may not be a realistic expectation.  But here is a shout out to all the time, committment and dedication by so many to pull this together.  And the really cool thing, everybody gets to perform in every show.  That is what I am talking about.

Come on out and catch the show this weekend and next.

PEACE!

KT

Day 33.